British Red Cross to invest £12 million in its charity shops
Howard Lake | 1 July 2008 | News
The British Red Cross is to spend £12 million over the next five years to improve its charity shops. It plans to open 20 new shops in commercially viable areas each year until 2012, refit 140 existing shops, and close about 70 of the least profitable shops.
Sue Azzopardi, British Red Cross Head of Trading, said that the investment is intended to double its charity shops’ profits to £8 million by 2012. “We are right at the beginning stage of implementing the retail investment plan”, she said, “but are already starting to see the benefits – British Red Cross shops are making more sales overall and selling a wider variety of goods”.
The charity reports that shops undergoing minor refits have already seen an average profit rise of 15%, and shops undergoing major refits have achieved a 17.5% increase in profit.
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The British Red Cross Trading Department currently generates an income of £23 million and profit of £4 million. It employs over 600 staff and engages over 6,000 volunteers. This makes it responsible for approximately 11% of total British Red Cross fundraising.
As part of the investment the charity will also be introducing electronic tills, networked via the web, into all shops. This should streamline the management of information in shops and give a greater commercial focus.
There will also be a renewed campaign to recruit Red Cross volunteers, both to Red Cross shops and into a variety of service delivery roles across the charity.
The charity has today introduced a new salary structure for all shop staff consisting of a base salary and additional earnings related to the income of their shop. The charity says that this brings its shops into line with current practice across charity and mainstream retail sectors.
Funds are predominately generated by goods donated and sold through British Red Cross charity shops, with additional funding coming from greeting cards, independent living products (ILP) and bought-in goods (BIG).
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- The Co-operative chooses the British Red Cross in a new style of charity partnership (21 July 2015)
- £5 coin to commemorate British Red Cross’ 150th anniversary (11 August 2020)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.